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Topic: Do you line dry your laundry? (Read 36669 times)

I line dry in the summer and in the winter we have two clothes horses that we alternate next to a radiator, and it normally takes ~24 hours for clothes to dry. Woolens/delicates take longer because our washing machine has a gentler spinning programme for them, and occasionally I have had to put a tray under the horse to catch all the drips! Our washing machine is in our kitchen, which is a bit of a pain (it can be quite noisy). My parents have a separate laundry room with what we call a 'dutch airer' (a wooden frame with about 4-6 wooden beams that you can lower to hang and then hoist up so the clothes don't get in the way.

I do have friends here that aren't allowed to dry outside though - they're not even allowed to let their clothes dry near the windows of their flat. They live in a block of flats with a large communal garden though, which sort of explains the line drying restriction, but I don't understand the 'not near windows' one!

I'm like most of the other UK E-Hellions here- line dry in summer (if not raining...) use airers inside, and tumble dry if no other option. Well- I'm lazy so any small things like socks go in the dryer...

I got towel rails put in the kitchen and shower room when we were having work done and they are amazing at getting things dry quickly. They are just as effective as ordinary radiators at heating the room too.

Genuine question for those who think drying washing outside makes people look poor - outside clotheslines here are as standard a part of the home as the mailbox. I've always lived in nice areas and most people hang their washing out to dry. Most people's clotheslines can't be seen from the street, but if for some reason some could be, would you consider those homeowners to be poor?

I've just returned from Asia and it was commonplace to see washing hanging out of windows/balconies, but as housing space there is severely restricted and most live in flats, I just assumed it was standard for people to dry their stuff that way. I'm sure some of those people were poor, but I'd think it a bit judgmental to assume they all were based solely on their clothes drying habits.

Bit OT: When I was pregnant with DS1 my elderly neighbour said she couldn't wait to see my line full of nice clean nappies blowing in the wind.

UK here - I've never owned a dryer. I put washing out outside as much as I can, and much prefer the fresh scent you get that way. As my garden is really small, I have a retractable line so when it isn't in use it isn't in the way. I have rosemary and lavender bushes in the garden undernewth the clothes line which add to the lovely fresh, clean washing feel!

I very rarely have an issue with bird droppings or anything of that kind, even in blackberry season!

The people I know her ewho have driers are mostly parents with young children, who have a *lot* pof washing and limited space for airers, and even then, most will only use the dryer if it is too wet to hag stuff outside.

UK here -- I line dry everything in the summer, and dry breezy days almost all year. In winter, I use a drying rack next to the radiator in my spare room for most clothes, except socks because they are a pain to hang up. Sheets and towels are awkward to hang inside, so I often reluctantly put them in the dryer until they are mostly dry, then I might drape them over the radiator to dry out completely.

I get the feeling that electricity is generally much cheaper in the US? I'm just not rich enough to run my dryer for everything -- and sheets and towels smell lovely when they have dried outside.

For the most part, it's not that there is actually a law on the books prohibiting line drying, but that homeowners' associations have banned it within neighborhoods. Depending on the terms of your HOA, violating HOA rules and regulations could result in massive fines and has even resulted in foreclosure on homes in some states.

The main reason given by HOA for banning line drying is appearance. Not necessarily an appearance of poverty, but a cluttered, untidy appearance. My parents' HOA, for example, has rules about the type of landscaping, paint colors, trash pickup (I think you can get a hefty fine if your trash bin stays out more than 1 hour after pickup - luckily their pickup people bring the bins back to the backyard for them!), etc. Clotheslines are just one additional prohibition intended to keep the neighborhood looking neat and tidy.

I'm also never willing to air dry sheets or towels. They're too big and hold too much water to dry properly in any climate I've ever lived in.

One thing that occurs reading this: Climate issues aside, how fast do US washing machines spin? I know they're different, what with the top loading thing and all, so I wonder if they don't spin as fast as our front-loaders and don't get enough moisture out to make line drying effective.

I can't get my head around the idea of a town that makes drying outside illegal, as someone posted unthread (sorry, can't find it to quote right now). What's the thinking behind that, does anyone know?

i was about to ask the same question - when we remove our wash from the washer - it's "just" wet, not dripping, not full of moisture.

I'm glad i live in a place where the weather is (most of the year) conducive for line drying, there isn't that much pollution, it's not too humid and it's not illegal to dry my clothing.

Aussie here. Have mostly had top loading machines here although my current machine is front loading. No appreciable difference except front loader more efficient with water use.

Both my front loader and mum's current top loading washer deliver pretty much the same result after spin cycle. Although my front loader does take a lot longer to get through a cycle.

Maybe US machines are different. (After some of the trans-Atlantic toilet comparisons, I'd believe anything). That would also explain why people have problems getting stuff dry in humid climates in US when that's not generally an issue in similar climates here.

The main reason given by HOA for banning line drying is appearance. Not necessarily an appearance of poverty, but a cluttered, untidy appearance.

Mostly here people have washing lines in their back gardens behind the house, so they can't be seen from the street. Would they still be banned?

In most cases, yes. In my parents' HOA (and in most that I've heard of), the rule is that it cannot be visible from the street or from other properties in the neighborhood. Because nearly all of the properties in their neighborhood are two-story, they would be able to look out their window and see into the backyards of several neighbors, meaning that those backyards couldn't have clotheslines.

And it's not just clotheslines - lots of things are banned in backyards, like children's play equipment of a certain height. For example, when I was a little girl, we lived in a non-HOA area and had a swingset with a slide and monkeybars. We weren't able to bring that when we moved to the HOA neighborhood, as the monkeybars would have been visible and that was banned.

The main reason given by HOA for banning line drying is appearance. Not necessarily an appearance of poverty, but a cluttered, untidy appearance.

Mostly here people have washing lines in their back gardens behind the house, so they can't be seen from the street. Would they still be banned?

This is the setup I'm familiar with too, so I'm puzzled as to how it can be untidy if no one can see it.

Our last house was built in an area that had a covenant that mentioned something about clotheslines not being visible from the street, but due to the fact that most blocks were large corner ones, that was rather impractical to enforce a lot of the time. I never felt it made the area look untidy or poor, and none of the other residents seemed to have a problem with it either.

The main reason given by HOA for banning line drying is appearance. Not necessarily an appearance of poverty, but a cluttered, untidy appearance.

Mostly here people have washing lines in their back gardens behind the house, so they can't be seen from the street. Would they still be banned?

In most cases, yes. In my parents' HOA (and in most that I've heard of), the rule is that it cannot be visible from the street or from other properties in the neighborhood. Because nearly all of the properties in their neighborhood are two-story, they would be able to look out their window and see into the backyards of several neighbors, meaning that those backyards couldn't have clotheslines.

And it's not just clotheslines - lots of things are banned in backyards, like children's play equipment of a certain height. For example, when I was a little girl, we lived in a non-HOA area and had a swingset with a slide and monkeybars. We weren't able to bring that when we moved to the HOA neighborhood, as the monkeybars would have been visible and that was banned.

There are people out there who complain about what they can see in somebody else's back garden? I really, really, really want to take such people on a tour of a refugee camp, or into a sweatshop, or to a famine region so that they can find something productive to be bothered about.

I mean, I know that some people's worlds are very small, but I'm surprised there's room for anybody in a world view that miniscule.

Yeah - HOAs are really, really frustrating, in my experience. Luckily, when my husband and I bought a house, our neighborhood had a "voluntary" HOA and we simply chose not to join. They do some good, yes - for example, my parents have some neighbors that would never mow their lawn if it wasn't for the fines that they got for having foot-tall grass - but overall I believe they have far too much power and focus on things that are not at all important. And the fact that homes can be foreclosed upon for not paying HOA dues, in some states, is just mind-boggling to me.

This is perhaps another reason that people have the perception that line drying = poor in some parts of the USA - poorer neighborhoods generally don't have HOAs, and are thus more likely to have visible clotheslines.

I line dry in summer, weather permitting, as mechtilde said "if not raining", after all this is the UK! Indoor dry on clothes horse, and radiators in winter. I did have a tumble dryer, but I never used it, and it was so much torubel to pull it out into the middle of the kitchen and set it up. In the end I scrapped it, and put a small freezer in it's place.

I believe the philanthropist Titus Salt had a clause for the tenants of his model town, that they were not permitted to dry their washing outside.

Genuine question for those who think drying washing outside makes people look poor - outside clotheslines here are as standard a part of the home as the mailbox. I've always lived in nice areas and most people hang their washing out to dry. Most people's clotheslines can't be seen from the street, but if for some reason some could be, would you consider those homeowners to be poor?

I've just returned from Asia and it was commonplace to see washing hanging out of windows/balconies, but as housing space there is severely restricted and most live in flats, I just assumed it was standard for people to dry their stuff that way. I'm sure some of those people were poor, but I'd think it a bit judgmental to assume they all were based solely on their clothes drying habits.

Bit OT: When I was pregnant with DS1 my elderly neighbour said she couldn't wait to see my line full of nice clean nappies blowing in the wind.

I can only answer for what I wrote, but it's not it's thought people are poor, or that there is anything wrong with being poor...societal attitudes have changed and it's no longer acceptable to hang bedding out in some condos, as it's seen as making the place look bad....it harkens back to 'the old days' when Japan as a whole was much poorer...rather than 'poor' perhaps 'unsophisticated' would be better? The Japanese phrase I hear most frequently by Japanese when referring to this is 'hin ga nai' 、akin to 'no class'.

I hang my bedding out ( a down comforter in our case) on the side of the house away from the street, and hang out all our laundry except in pollen season in the spring.

Genuine question for those who think drying washing outside makes people look poor - outside clotheslines here are as standard a part of the home as the mailbox. I've always lived in nice areas and most people hang their washing out to dry. Most people's clotheslines can't be seen from the street, but if for some reason some could be, would you consider those homeowners to be poor?

Most of us, here on ehell, don't think it makes anyone "look poor" no matter where it's placed. We're more explaining the thinking that went into the laws and HOA rules, many of which are decades old and come from a time when having a clothes dryer was a big status symbol. There are actually laws being passed now against clothesline bans, because people are starting to like the look and the environmental benefits again, but it's only in some locales.